Does SMART need so much high-paid staff?

So, I see that Dick Spotswood wrote a column in the Independent Journal on Aug. 25 telling us that the original managers of the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit did not allow for recessions, didn’t ask for enough at the start and had other problems that might hit the SMART train money fund? My question would be, why not ask for more?

These people are supposed to be experts, no? For the money they are being paid, I would think they would be experts. And I see the same general manager and board that has always been on this panel. Who are the ‘former’ people? Were they paid the same exorbitant salaries as these are?

Wake up and smell the coffee, people. Do they need all these high-paid staff? I like the SMART train. I take the SMART train. But, come on, something has to be done here before asking us to re-up this tax.

— Joanne Gotelli, San Rafael

Ban assault weapons for health, welfare, safety

Rapid-fire assault weapons are military weapons and they should not be available to the civilian population.

The Second Amendment is not absolute. Specifically, many types of weapons, including weapons of mass destruction, are already prohibited by state and federal statues. Similarly, assault weapons present a clear and present danger to our life, liberty and ultimate pursuit of happiness. The death, carnage, pain and misery associated with a mass shooting is unacceptable.

For the health, welfare and safety of all Americans, we need an assault-weapons ban. Is our government listening?

— Michael Paganini, San Rafael

Age 14 is too young to begin changing gender

Regarding a recent article in the Independent Journal (“For Marin’s transgender youths, support not lacking,” Sept. 1), I was concerned to read that Dr. Thomas Satterwhite has performed mastectomies on patients as young as 14, and that he terms these procedures as having “minimal complications.” Is never being able to nurse a baby a minimal complication?

Once someone has had a mastectomy for the purposes of transition, it’s likely they will continue down the path of transition, which necessitates lifetime ingestion of hormones. That is a windfall for the pharmaceutical industry.

Fourteen-year-olds should not be making decisions about permanently altering their bodies. Research has shown that a large percentage of adolescents who think they’re transgender but who do not transition decide in adulthood that they are cisgender (their biological sex) and that they are homosexual, not transgender.

One wonders if lingering homophobia in society is leading some teens (and even adults) to believe they are transgender rather than accepting themselves as gay or lesbian. Moreover, a role of social contagion has been found in the current skyrocketing rates of teens believing they are transgender. Is it a coincidence that this epidemic started in the age of YouTube? Research has also found a connection between autism spectrum disorders and gender dysphoria.

There are a lot of questions we need to ask about why and how we are seeing so many youth with gender dysphoria.

— Anne Rettenberg, San Rafael

Countywide vote on golf course property not right

Peggy Sheneman’s letter to the editor on Sept. 1 offers a persuasive-sounding argument in support of the March 2020 initiative on the fate of the former San Geronimo Golf Course. But there’s a problem. This is a false frame.

The property has always been zoned recreational commercial. No supervisor has suggested changing that zoning. By implying otherwise, Sheneman deliberately attempts to deceive. Perhaps we should call it the golfers’ Trojan course.

The initiative seeks to create a Marin where no community plan is safe from vested interests ginning up a referendum to change it.

Let’s be perfectly clear. This is not about stopping runaway supervisors. It’s about potentially taking away the right of every community in Marin to guide its own future.

San Geronimo’s community plan was developed by engaged community members over a thoughtful, five-year period of deep research, reflection and discussion. With a countywide vote we could lose our right to local control over land use.

If you think voters in Fairfax should weigh in on the fate of the seminary property in Strawberry, or that Novato should have a say in what activities are permitted at Old Mill Park in Mill Valley, this initiative would establish the precedent for that.

It only takes one bad precedent to overturn our local community planning process countywide. If Sheneman were truly worried about the possibility of local plans being overruled, she’d urge people to vote no on this March 2020 ballot measure.